New Regency finds ‘Memory’

Chernin wins battle for rights to book series

New Regency and Peter Chernin won a bidding battle for screen rights to “My Name Is Memory,” the first of a three-book series written by Ann Brashares. Deal was for high-six against seven figures.

Regency acquired the book as Universal chased it for Paul and Chris Weitz’s Depth of Field and Warner Bros. pursued for producer Denise Di Novi, who produced the screen adaptati on of the Brashares novel “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” for WB.

Sold on the basis of a first installment that will be published next June by the Penguin imprint Riverhead Books, the series begins as a college-age couple meets, and a young man makes a startling confession. Turns out their souls have been reincarnated over hundreds of years, but these soulmates keep losing each other. While he remembers the details of their previous lives— and his often exasperating attempts to connect with her romantically—she cannot recall the events of those past lives. The book has elements of “Twilight” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife.”

The acquisition becomes the first major book deal for Chernin since he established Chernin Entertainment as a Fox-based production entity. Chernin will produce with his production chief Dylan Clark.

Chernin is becoming an aggressive buyer, most recently acquiring an untitled pitch by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (“Moby Dick”) that retells the tale of Moses and his exploits as detailed in the Book of Exodus.

Chernin also boarded several projects already at Fox, including the John D. MacDonald novel adaptation “The Deep Blue Goodbye,” which Dana Stevens is scripting for Leonardo DiCaprio to play Travis McGee. Chernin is producing with Amy Robinson and Appian Way.